JOHN BRENNAN, Assistant to the President for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, to reporters at the Nuclear Security Summit, at the Washington Convention Center: “[I]ntelligence-sharing … must be accompanied by collective and effective action by all nations of the world to deny and to deprive terrorists and criminal groups the opportunity to gain the nuclear related material and the expertise that would allow them to fulfill their evil goals. Indeed, our future -- and the future of generations yet to come -- depend on our ability to safeguard these materials and expertise. … That is why we are focusing specifically on nuclear terrorism and nuclear security over the next two days.”

BULLETIN: "Consumer Reports has given the Lexus GX460 a rare 'Don't Buy' warning, saying a problem that occurred during routine handling tests could lead the SUV to roll over in real-world driving." --AP

MARC AMBINDER writes a first-person, “Beating Obesity,” in the May issue of The Atlantic, with before and after pics: “[A] hugely popular political figure … can help redirect the stigma that brutally accompanies obesity, away from those who don’t deserve it, and toward those who do—like food marketers who deploy psychological deception, or grocers who put sugary cereals where kids are most likely to see them. … Michelle Obama’s campaign will ultimately rest on her willingness to name names. … [I]t’s one year to the day since I had my [bariatric] surgery. Walking by my office, a colleague calls me a ghost of my former self. So far, at least, that’s still true. But I was very privileged, and very lucky. I had the resources to conquer obesity and all its attendant miseries with major surgery—a choice that we, collectively, should ensure that the adults of tomorrow don’t have to make.”

DEPARTING:

-- “The senior U.S. general in Iraq since 2008, Gen. Ray Odierno, will be succeeded by a leading Pentagon general at the end of the summer, military officials said Monday. His replacement is Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, the staff director for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the officials said.” – AP’s Anne Gearan and Kevin Maurer

--“Service Employees International Union President Andrew Stern, one of America's most prominent labor leaders, is set to resign … [An] SEIU official speculated that Stern had finally tired of the draining job. ‘Health care getting done is a good culmination,’ the official said. … The SEIU has emerged as a central political player and has grown rapidly under Stern's tenure … Change to Win executive director Anna Burger is widely viewed as Stern's heir apparent.” – Ben Smith

BREAKING – Ed Chen of Bloomberg News, president of the White House Correspondents' Association, announces awards to be presented at the annual scholarship dinner on May 1: “Ben Feller of The Associated Press and Jake Tapper of ABC News will receive the Merriman Smith Award for presidential coverage under deadline pressure in the print and broadcast categories … Mark Knoller of CBS News will receive the Aldo Beckman award for sustained excellence in White House coverage. Suzanne Bohan and Sandy Kleffman of the Contra Costa, Calif., Times will receive the Edgar A. Poe Award for excellence in coverage of news of national or regional significance. … Feller was cited by the Smith award judges for his coverage of President Obama's surprise, late-night visit to Dover Air Force Base. … Tapper won for his story that revealed former Senator Tom Daschle's tax problems that derailed his nomination to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. … Knoller was cited for his body of work covering the White House for more than 35 years. … Bohan and Kleffman won the Poe Award for their four-part entitled, ‘Shortened Lives: Where You Live Matters,’” which made extensive use of Alameda County health records to examine variations in disease rates and life expectancies between neighborhoods. Full release

EXCLUSIVE -- Reliable sources (!) report that Lanny Davis, former White House Special Counsel to President Clinton and a member of President Bush's Privacy and Civil Liberties Board, will announce this week the formation of a new law firm called -- you guessed it -- Lanny J. Davis & Associates. Davis will combine in one law practice the trio of disciplines -- law, media, and legislative/political strategies -- that he used at the White House when he worked as a White House press spokesperson for President Clinton on campaign finance and other congressional investigations. (!) Lanny plans bipartisan affiliations.

BREAKING: “Hyperion today [will announce] plans to publish an historic new book based upon [seven] never-before-disclosed interviews with Jacqueline Kennedy. The book is scheduled for publication in September 2011. Conducted in the spring of 1964, … Mrs. Kennedy’s conversations with historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. … have remained strictly sealed since then in accordance with Mrs. Kennedy’s wishes. Now, in connection with the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy Administration, in association with the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Mrs. Kennedy’s family plans to make available both the interview transcripts and the 6.5 hours of audio recordings of those interviews. The book will be edited and introduced by Caroline Kennedy … The interviews cover … the Cuban Missile Crisis; Mrs. Kennedy’s evolving sense of herself and her role as First Lady; … and President Kennedy’s plans for a second term. … Gretchen Young, Caroline Kennedy’s longtime editor, negotiated the deal with Robert B. Barnett of Williams and Connolly.” Full release

SUNDAY SO FAR – “Face the Nation” has a Scott Brown exclusive.

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BRITAIN IS HOLDING ITS FIRST U.S.-STYLE TV DEBATES ahead of May 6 parliamentary elections, and C-SPAN will air: "The first election debate, courtesy of ITV, [tapes Thursday and] will air Sunday April 18 at 9 pm ET/PT. The second debate, courtesy of Sky News, will air Sunday April 25 at 9 pm ET/PT. And the last debate, courtesy of the BBC, will air Sunday May 2 at 9 pm ET/PT."

TOP TALKER -- WP A1, “Press secretary Gibbs, ready to speak for himself” (Online headline: “Obama spokesman Gibbs sounds eager for future strategist role”), by Jason Horowitz: “Robert Gibbs … is the public face and mouthpiece of the administration, but he is also the consummate presidential confidant … The Alabama native … is considered, along with Obama's presidential campaign manager, David Plouffe, a top candidate to take the place of senior strategist David Axelrod when the Washington-weary keeper of the Obama message leaves to focus on the 2012 reelection. That isn't happening anytime soon, which means Gibbs is stuck on double duty. Gibbs is too discreet to say which job he prefers, but it's not hard to figure out. Listen to the press secretary talk about the media as a predictable, hyperventilating rabble obsessed with access and covering ‘everything as make or break,’ or observe his frustration percolating in the briefing room. Then ask him whether he has improved as a big-picture strategist, and the administration's leading purveyor of evasive, circuitous sentences suddenly speaks to the point. ‘Oh, absolutely!’ Gibbs said. ‘I admit: I didn't come to this naturally,’ Gibbs added about his strategic chops during a recent interview. … Gibbs late last year pointed out the political perils of letting the Justice Department try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a civilian court and has urged the president to ignore Wall Street critics who argue Obama has adopted too populist a tone when speaking out against executive bonuses. (Gibbs declined to comment about his counsel on civilian trials, but as for his stance against executive bonuses, he said, ‘I wouldn't dissuade you from that one.’)

“Gibbs is also a regular at foreign policy meetings. He volunteered that he attended all 33 hours of the Afghanistan briefings, though he noted that he never said a word. He did chime in during last month's escalating tensions with Israel, if only to make sure the president understood the ‘conventional wisdom’ promoted in the media, that Obama's toughness with Likud hard-liners would potentially erode his domestic Jewish support. ‘For a lot of reasons, he would discount that,’ Gibbs said, referring to the president. ... Gibbs is careful not to appear to be auditioning for a senior strategist job that he says is already taken. Axelrod, however, has been open about his exasperation with Washington and has made it clear privately and publicly that he doesn't intend to stick around forever. … Gibbs argued that he not only had the ability to channel the president's thoughts but was an adviser who, like Axelrod, could deliver unpleasant analysis. ‘If the requirement is that -- if you look over the last six years, who has had to go and tell him bad news or things he didn't want to hear,’ he said, ‘I think it would not be inaccurate to say that the top two people at that list are David and myself.’ His [assistant] popped in and reminded him that he had a 4:30 with the president in the Oval Office.”

PULITZER WINNERS ANNOUNCED – Patrick Gavin: “The 2010 Pulitzer Prizes were announced Monday afternoon at Columbia University's School of Journalism. [Current or former] Washington Post journalists won five Pulitzers (in International Reporting, Feature Writing, Commentary, Criticism and General Nonfiction), taking home more awards than any other news outlet. … Many expected The New York Times’s David Rohde to win a prize for chronicling his seven-month abduction by the Taliban. Rohde was cited as a finalist by the Pulitzer board, but the ‘international reporting’ award went to Shadid for his work for The Washington Post, though he now works for The New York Times. … For the second year in a row, POLITICO’s Matt Wuerker was honored as a finalist in the cartooning category, with the Pulitzer board citing ‘his broad portfolio that encompasses the nation’s historic political year, using rich artistry, wry humor and sometimes animation to drive home his deft satire.’” Patrick’s story, with list of winners. Links to winning entries.

BESIDES ROHDE, ANOTHER GLARING OMISSION FROM THE WINNERS' LIST: David Leonhardt of The New York Times, a finalist in Commentary “for his illumination of the nation’s most pressing and complex economic concerns, from health care reform to the worst recession in decades.”

WHAT WE’RE READING – THE PULITZER BOOK WINNERS:

--Fiction: “Tinkers,” a first novel by Paul Harding, a Boston writing instructor (Bellevue Literary Press, 191 pp.): “A methodical repairer of clocks, [a Massachusetts man] is now finally released from the usual constraints of time and memory to rejoin his father, an epileptic, itinerant peddler, whom he had lost 7 decades before.” From pp. 164-165: “Customers dropping off or picking up clocks came to the front door, which was located in a small entryway attached to the living room. … George’s wife … tired of George’s way of talking with his customers, a combination of easy, joking familiarity and conspiratorial regret. She became especially uncomfortable when the customers pulled out their checkbooks and asked what they owed. The price always seemed to surprise, if not actually anger them. When he had few or no customers, George often spent the day driving all over the North Shore and Cape Ann, redeeming checks at the banks from which the funds were drawn, so that all of his deposits to his own accounts were made in cash. He also kept safety-deposit boxes at six different banks, which he worked at filling with one-hundred-dollar bills. … George regularly visited each bank in order to soothe himself with rates and principals, compound interest and tightly banded stacks of bills.” $8.22 (paper) on Amazon

--History: “Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World,” by Liaquat Ahamed (The Penguin Books, 565 pp.), about the 1930s’ “most exclusive club in the world”: the central bankers of the U.S., Britain, Germany and France. From pp. 497-8, 501: “ Part of the reason for the extent of the world economic collapse of 1929 to 1933 was that it was not just one crisis but, as I describe, a sequence of crises, ricocheting from one side of the Atlantic to the other, each one feeding off the ones before, starting with the contraction in the German economy that began in 1928, the Great Crash on Wall Street in 1929, the serial bank panics that affected the United States from the end of 1930, and the unraveling of European finances in the summer of 1931. Each of these episodes has an analogue to a contemporary crisis. … [T]he Great Depression was not some act of God or the result of some deep-rooted contradictions of capitalism but the direct result of a series of misjudgments by economic politics makers, some made back in the 1920s, others after the first crises set in – by any measure the most dramatic sequence of collective blunders ever made by financial officials.” $12.24 (paper) on Amazon

--Biography: “The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt,” by T.J Stiles (Alfred A. Knopf, 720 pp.). From pp. 4, 564-6, 569: “By the time he had turned 50, he had dominated railroad and steamboat transportation between New York and New England (thus earning the nickname ‘Commodore’). … In the 1860s, he had systematically seized control of the railroads that connected Manhattan with the rest of the world … [He built] Grand Central … He had stamped the city with his mark – a mark that would last well in to the twenty-first century – and so had stamped the country. … [He pioneered] the giant corporation … [H]is unprecedented wealth … signaled that inequalities were exploding in size with the new corporate economy. … It was as if a head of state had died – the self-made chief executive of a country that he himself had invented, rather like a cross between George Washington and Genghis Kahn. Generations had come of age in his shadow. … If he had been able to liquidate his $100 million estate to American purchasers …, he would have received about $1 out of every $9 in existence.” $24.75 on Amazon

--General nonfiction: “The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy," by David E. Hoffman (Doubleday 578 pp.) From pp. 23-4, 422: “By 1982, the combined strategic arsenals of the two superpowers held the explosive powers of approximately 1 million Hiroshimas. Even with their huge arsenal, Soviet leaders feared they could perish in a decapitating missile attack … They drew up plans for a system to guarantee a retaliatory strike. They envisioned a fully automatic system, known as the Dead Hand, … in which the decision to launch all the land-based missiles would be made by a small crew of duty officers surviving deep underground in a globe-shaped concrete bunker. The system was fully tested in November 1984 and placed on duty a few months later. At the climax of mistrust between the superpowers, one of them had built a Doomsday Machine. … The drawing was labeled ‘Emergency Rocket Command System.’ … [I]f there were seismic evidence of nuclear strikes hitting the ground, and if all communications were lost, then the duty officers in the bunker could launch the command rockets. If so ordered, the command rockets would zoom across the country, broadcasting the signal ‘launch’ to the intercontinental ballistic missiles.” $23.10 on Amazon

SCOOP -- HUFFPOST: JPMORGAN TO ARGUE AGAINST HOMEOWNER RELIEF – “JPMorgan Chase Says Contracts Too Sacred To Give Homeowners Another Chance: 'Too Big To Fail' Bank Fighting White House Program,” by Shahien Nasiripour: “With millions of homeowners losing their homes to foreclosure, … JPMorgan Chase plans to argue against the Obama administration's latest weapon in its fight to stem the problem -- principal cuts for struggling borrowers -- by citing the sanctity of contracts and the borrower's ‘promise to repay.’ In testimony to be delivered Tuesday afternoon [to the House Financial Services Committee], David Lowman, [CEO of JPMorgan Chase Home Lending], will fight back against the program which calls for lenders and investors to decrease the outstanding debt owed on a home mortgage. While his competitors at Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup plan to dance around the issue -- judging from their prepared remarks -- Lowman [says in prepared remarks] … : ‘Like all loans, mortgage contracts are based on a promise to repay money borrowed. … If we re-write the mortgage contract retroactively to restore equity to any mortgage borrower because the value of his or her home declined, what responsible lender will take the equity risk of financing mortgages in the future?’” Hearing info

SPEED READ, by Tim Alberta:

--NYT A1, “China Pledges to Work With U.S. on Iran Sanctions,” by Mark E. Sanger and David Landler: “President Obama secured a promise from President Hu Jintao of China on Monday to join negotiations on a new package of sanctions against Iran, administration officials said, but Mr. Hu made no specific commitment to backing measures that the United States considers severe enough to force a change in direction in Iran’s nuclear program. In a 90-minute conversation here before the opening of a summit meeting on nuclear security, Mr. Obama sought to win more cooperation from China by directly addressing one of the main issues behind Beijing’s reluctance to confront Iran: its concern that Iran could retaliate by cutting off oil shipments to China. The Chinese import nearly 12 percent of their oil from Iran. Mr. Obama assured Mr. Hu that he was ‘sensitive to China’s energy needs’ and would work to make sure that Beijing had a steady supply of oil if Iran cut China off in retaliation for joining in severe sanctions. American officials portrayed the Chinese response as the most encouraging sign yet that Beijing would support an international effort to ratchet up the pressure on Iran and as a sign of ‘international unity’ on stopping Iran’s nuclear program before the country can develop a working nuclear weapon.”

--WP 1-col. lead, “Obama presses for unity on Iran: NUCLEAR SUMMIT OPENS,” by Mary Beth Sheridan and Scott Wilson: “President Obama used an unprecedented summit on nuclear terrorism Monday to press global leaders to support further isolating Iran for its nuclear activities, and the White House said that China's leader had agreed to cooperate with tightening U.N. sanctions on the Islamic republic. The Nuclear Security Summit is the first large meeting of world leaders focused on how to keep nuclear materials away from terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda. The event drew 36 heads of state and delegations from 10 other countries to the city, which became a blur of flashing police lights and speeding black convoys. U.S. officials structured the summit to avoid controversial topics and achieve broad agreement on improving security at places where nuclear material is stored: military installations, civilian research reactors and other facilities. But, in bilateral meetings leading up to the event, Obama sought to send a message to Iran -- which denies it is developing a nuclear weapon -- that it must heed international efforts to restrain its nuclear program.”

--NYT 2-col. lead, “Lehman Channeled Risks Through ‘Alter Ego’ Firm,” by Louise Story and Eric Dash: “It was like a hidden passage on Wall Street, a secret channel that enabled billions of dollars to flow through Lehman Brothers. In the years before its collapse, Lehman used a small company — its ‘alter ego,’ in the words of a former Lehman trader — to shift investments off its books. The firm, called Hudson Castle, played a crucial, behind-the-scenes role at Lehman ... The relationship raises new questions about the extent to which Lehman obscured its financial condition before it plunged into bankruptcy. While Hudson Castle appeared to be an independent business, it was deeply entwined with Lehman. For years, its board was controlled by Lehman ... It was also stocked with former Lehman employees. None of this was disclosed by Lehman, however.”

--WP col. 1, “President’s team is optimistic on deficit,” by David Cho: “The federal deficit is running significantly lower than it did last year, with the budget gap for the first half of fiscal 2010 down 8 percent over the same period a year ago, senior Obama administration officials said Monday. The officials attributed the results to higher tax revenue and to lower spending than projected on bailing out the financial system. If the trend continues for the rest of the year, it would mean the annual deficit would be $1.3 trillion -- about $300 billion less than the administration's projection two months ago for 2010. But by suggesting the deficit may have peaked, administration officials are taking a political gamble. If the favorable number does not hold up in coming months and the budget shortfall surpasses the $1.4 trillion recorded last year, voters in the November midterm elections could punish the Democrats for offering false hope. No official statement on the deficit is scheduled until the release of a late-summer review.”

RESPONSE from Kenneth Baer, OMB communications director: "While the positive news is welcome, it is premature and irresponsible to be making deficit projections for the fiscal year as a whole. The Administration will issue revised deficit numbers as part of the Mid-Session Review this summer.”

2010 -- Reuters, “Gay marriage fails to get on California ballot”: “A challenge to California's gay marriage ban failed on Monday to qualify for the 2010 ballot, leaving gay activists mulling a 2012 push and hoping a federal court will overturn the measure before then. Los Angeles-based Love Honor Cherish carried out a volunteer-driven signature-gathering effort after large groups decided there was not enough time to ensure victory this year, even with some polls showing more than 50 percent support for same-sex marriage. A 150-day period to gather signatures to place the question on the ballot ended on Monday.”

BUSINESS BURST -- WSJ lead story, “Dow Breaks Through 11000,” by E.S. Browning: “Lifted by optimism about corporate profits, a recovering economy and the latest debt-relief plan for Greece, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 11000, something it hadn't achieved since the financial system began teetering nearly 19 months ago. By inching past the milestone—rising just 8.62 points, or 0.08%, to 11005.97—the Dow continued what amounts to a stealth rally in a market characterized by below-average trading volume and small daily moves. The Dow has risen on 23 of the past 30 trading days, but moved more than 100 points only once, on March 23. It has risen 68% since bottoming out in March 2009, but is up just 6% this year. Investors have been torn between a conviction that the recession is over and fears that unemployment, high debt levels and still-troubled housing and lending markets could prevent a normal recovery. The market's ability to finally move past the landmark 11000 level suggests the optimists remain in charge.”

--HAPPENING SOON IN NEW DELHI -- In an address to the Confederation of Indian Industry, U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue will highlight opportunities for U.S. businesses to expand and create jobs by targeting India’s emerging economy, notably the $1 trillion infrastructure build out they have scheduled over the next decade: “More trade and investment between us means more jobs and prosperity for both of us … It’s time to start writing the next chapter in the positive U.S.-India commercial relationship, with the private sectors in both countries leading the way.” Prepared remarks

SPORTS BLINK – AP: “Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger may have avoided criminal charges after a college student accused him of sexually assaulting her in Georgia, but he must meet with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and could face punishment from the league. Ocmulgee Circuit District Attorney Fred Bright said Monday that after exhaustive interviews and inconclusive medical exams, the student's accusations could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.”

DESSERT ----LAT, “O'Brien makes a deal with TBS,” by Joe Flint: “Conan O'Brien is going to cable. The former host of NBC's ‘Tonight Show,’ who lost the program to Jay Leno earlier this year, has signed a deal for a new late-night program on TBS, the basic cable network owned by Time Warner. O'Brien's show will start in November at 11 p.m. George Lopez, the comedian who currently occupies that slot, will have his show move to midnight. ‘In three months, I've gone from network television to Twitter to performing live in theaters, and now I'm headed to basic cable. My plan is working perfectly,’ O'Brien said in a statement.”

--E! Online, “Kevin Eubanks Leaving The Tonight Show For Good”: “Hey, does Conan O'Brien need a band leader? Not that one has anything to do with the other, but Kevin Eubanks coincidentally happened to pick today to announce that he'll be leaving The Tonight Show for good in six weeks. … ‘After 18 years, I just need a change of pace and see what else is going on,’ Eubanks explained.”

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